My, but it’s Early – Early Music, that is!

This morning on WPRB, don’t expect the usual duets for solo instrument and piano. In honor of Early Music Month, we’ll gaze into a distant mirror – albeit a funhouse mirror – glimpsing courtly dances, Gregorian chant, madrigals, and hymn tunes, transformed by “contemporary” composers – that is to say, composers who have worked over the course of the past century.

At 9:00, I’ll be joined by John Burkhalter, a stalwart of the local Early Music scene and a member of the Guild for Early Music. He’ll fill us in on the Guild and a series of upcoming concerts that will feature vocal and instrumental music from the 12th through the 18th centuries. The concerts will be presented by the Guild’s member groups throughout the month of March. You’ll find a complete schedule at guildforearlymusic.org.

Our playlist this morning will include music inspired by Elizabethan dances, a guitar concerto based on Renaissance madrigals, arrangements of virginal pieces and cantigas for different instrumental ensembles, and wind music based on early lute pieces, among others. Around 9:45 or 9:50, we’ll enjoy a recording of Philadelphia composer, writer, and radio personality Kile Smith’s “Vespers,” ably performed by The Crossing and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band.

It’s a taste of Merrie Olde Princeton, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. The bodkins are perpetually at odds, on Classic Ross Amico.

#EarlyMusicMonth
Early Music America